...by James Fenimore Cooper?
I can't imagine that anyone saw Daniel Day-Lewis play Natty Bumppo in [i]The Last of the Mohicans[/i], without immediately going back and reading those excellent stories, written in the 1820s and 30s.
These are stories that were best-sellers in their day, and immediately became part of our culture.
Beginning with the publication of [i]The Pioneers[/i] in 1823, Cooper has given us a good view not only on the early development of America, but an even more excellent view on the development of the earliest American character.
There would be four other stories about Natty Bumppo - [i]The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Prairie (1827), The Pathfinder (1840), and The Deerslayer (1841)][/i]- collectively known as the Leatherstocking Tales.
Remarkably, the Leatherstocking Tales were successfully exported in whole to Europe, where many a future American citizen would read about the purity, honesty, moral courage, and native intelligence of this common man. And made their plan for passage to that veritable Eden, as they so clearly believed it to be.
Many will complain that the prodigious feats of marksmanship exhibited by our hero bordered on the bizarre. Even Mark Twain took a swipe at them.
But Twain also wrote about the 'damnable German language' and I think there's nothing sexier in this world, or holds my attention more, than a good looking female speaking German, or English with a German accent. So Twain can easily get things wrong.[:D]
Well didja read 'em or not?
Eric The(I aint crazy about French)Hun